Theoretical study on the enantioselective reductions of p-chlorophenyl ethyl ketone catalyzed by two chiral oxazaborolidines has been performed by AM1 MO method. The reaction includes four steps. The heat of reaction of each step and the activation energy of the 2nd stepwere obtained. It was found that the 2nd step and the 4th step are endothermic.Meanwhile, computations showed that the enantioselectivity of the reduction increased by using the PhO derivative of chiral oxazaborolidine as catalyst. The predicted chirality and optical activity of the final product are in agreement with the experimental result.

Key words: AM1, p-chlorophenyl ethyl ketone, enantioselective reduction, chiral oxazaborolidine and its PhO derivative